Friday, December 2, 2016

The holiday season can be
a stressful time of year for everyone, especially for parents of children on the autism spectrum. The sights and sounds of the holidays can be
stressful and over-stimulating. There are many changes in routine, family events,
parties, and vacations that need to be planned. Sometimes the stress of these
changes can become overwhelming and the joy and happiness of the holidays might
be lost. Here are some helpful tips to lessen your child’s anxiety and increase
your family’s enjoyment of the holiday season:

Decorating and Shopping

If your child has difficulty with change, you may want to gradually
decorate thehouse. Decorate in stages, rather than all
at once. It may also be helpful to develop a visual schedule
or calendar that shows what will be done on each day.

Allow your child to interact with the decorations and help put them in
place.

Flashing lights or musical decorations can disturb some children. To
see how yourchild will respond, provide an opportunity
experience these items in a store or atelsewhere first.

Last minute holiday shopping can be stressful for children who rely on
routines. Ifyou do take your child shopping, allow enough
time to gradually adapt to the intenseholiday stimuli that stores exhibit this
time of year.

Family Routines and Travel

Meet as a family to discuss how to minimize disruptions to established
routines and how
to support positive behavior when disruptions
are inevitable.

Continue using behavior support strategies during the holidays. For
example, use social stories to help your child cope
with changes in routine and visual supports to help prepare for more complicated days.

Use a visual schedule if you are celebrating the holidays on more than
one day toshow when there will be parties/gifts and when
there will not.

Use rehearsal and role play to give children practice ahead of time in
dealing withnew social situations, or work together to
prepare a social story that incorporates allthe elements of an upcoming event or visit
to better prepare them for that situation

If you are traveling for the holidays, make sure you have child’s
favorite foods, booksor toys available. Having familiar items readily
available can help to calm stressfulsituations.

If you are going to visit family or friends, make sure there is a quiet,
calm place to goto
if needed. Teach your child to leave a situation and/or how to access support
whena situation becomes overwhelming. For
example, if you are having visitors, have aspace set aside for the child as his/her
safe/calm space. He or she should be taughtahead of time that they should go to their
space when feeling overwhelmed. This self-management strategy will also be helpful in
future situations.

Gifts and Play Time

If you put gifts under the Christmas tree, prepare well ahead of time
by teaching that gifts are not to be opened without the family
there. Give your child a wrapped and
a reward for keeping it intact.

Practice unwrapping gifts, taking turns and waiting for others, and
giving gifts. Role play
scenarios with your child in preparation for him/her getting a gift they may
notwant

Take toys and other gifts out of the box before wrapping them. It can
be more fun andless frustrating if your child can open
the gift and play with it immediately.

When opening gifts as a family, try passing around an ornament to
signal whose turnit is to open the next gift. This helps alleviate
disorganization and the frustration ofwaiting.

Prepare siblings and young relatives to share their new gifts with
others.

If necessary, consider giving your child a quiet space to play with
his/her own gifts,away from the temptation of grabbing at other
children’s toys

Prepare family members for strategies to use to minimize anxiety or
behavioralincidents, and to enhance participation. Provide
suggestions ahead of time that willmake for a less stressful holiday season.

Keep an eye out for signs of anxiety or distress, including an
increase in behavior such
as humming or rocking - this may indicate it's time to take a break from theactivity.

Understand how much noise and other sensory input your child can
manage. Know their level of anxiety and the amount of preparation
it may require.

Try to relax and have a good time. Do everything possible to help
reduce the stresslevel for your child and family during the
holidays. If you are tense your child maysense that something is wrong. Don’t
forget to prepare yourself! A calm and collected parent
is better able to help their family enjoy this wonderful time of year.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Excellent tips! The chaos of the holidays is never the "fun time" for the child that it is for everyone else and sometimes other adults just don't understand why 'Johnny' is not happy and relaxed on holiday occasions!'Johnny' usually just wants his regular routine back!

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